A Dynamic Approach to Risk Factors for Maternal Corporal Punishment in Early to Middle Childhood (original) (raw)
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Parental Corporal Punishment Predicts Behavior Problems in Early Childhood
Journal of Family Psychology, 2007
examined the impact of corporal punishment (CP) on children's behavior problems. Longitudinal analyses were specified that controlled for covarying contextual and parenting variables and that partialed child effects. The results indicate that parental CP uniquely contributes to negative behavioral adjustment in children at both 36 months and at 1st grade, with the effects at the earlier age more pronounced in children with difficult temperaments. Parents and mental health professionals who work to modify children's negative behavior should be aware of the unique impact that CP likely plays in triggering and maintaining children's behavior problems. Broad-based family policies that reduce the use of this parenting behavior would potentially increase children's mental health and decrease the incidence of children's behavior problems.
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2009
We investigate maternal attitudes toward corporal punishment and the attribution of blame to the child on the basis of data gathered from a population survey of a representative sample of mothers and mother figures. A total of 3,148 women living at least half of the time with a child participated in a telephone survey. The independent variables included in the multivariate model predicting maternal attitudes and attributions include the child's, the mother's and the family's characteristics and social support. Results of the multiple regression analysis demonstrate the unique contribution of variables according to the mother's characteristics (mother's sensitivity to the consequences of violence, mother's experience of childhood violence and parental stress related to child's temperament). These results partially support the importance of prevention programs that would reduce stress and increase the level of parental empathy through the means of parental training.
Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2008
The combined impact of maternal depression and in-home violence, and how their relationship with physical punishment varies with child behaviour are unknown. To determine the combined impact of maternal depression and violence exposure on smacking and explore the role of child behaviours in this relationship. Multivariable regression analysis of a sample of kindergarten children. Maternal depressive symptoms, violence exposure and smacking were measured by parent interview. Child behaviours were reported by teachers. 12,764 mother-child dyads were examined. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for smacking among depressed mothers was 1.59 (95% CI 1.40 to 1.80), mothers exposed to in-home violence 1.48 (95% CI 1.18 to 1.85) and dually exposed mothers 2.51 (95% CI 1.87 to 3.37). Adjusting for child self-control or externalising behaviour did not change these associations, and no effect modification by child behaviour was detected. Among mothers smacking children, depression was associated with increased smacking frequency (adjusted incident rate ratio (aIRR) 1.12; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.24), but became borderline significant after adjusting for child self-control or externalising behaviour (aIRRs 1.10; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.21). Depressed mothers exposed to violence demonstrated higher rates of smacking (aIRR 1.29; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.53); this remained stable when adjusting for child behaviours. Maternal depression and violence exposure are associated with smacking, particularly when depression and violence co-exist, when they are also associated with smacking frequency. Child self-control and externalising behaviour do not substantially impact the association between maternal depressive symptoms, violence exposure and smacking.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, 2006
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of severe physical punishment of children/adolescents in a low-income community, and to examine child mental health problems as a potential correlate. METHOD: This study is a Brazilian cross-sectional pilot study of the World Studies of Abuse in Family Environments. A probabilistic sample of clusters including all eligible households (women aged 15-49 years, son/daughter < 18 years) was evaluated. One mother-child pair was randomly selected per household (n = 89; attrition = 11%). Outcome (severe physical punishment of children/adolescents by mother/father) was defined as shaking (if age <or= 2 years), kicking, choking, smothering, burning/scalding/branding, beating, or threatening with weapon. Three groups of potential correlates were examined: child/adolescent (age, gender, physical/mental health); mother (education, unemployment, physical/mental health, harsh physical punishment in childhood, marital violence); father (unemployment, drunkenness). Severe marital violence was defined as kicking, hitting, beating or use of /threat to use a weapon. The following standardized questionnaires were applied by trained interviewers: World Studies of Abuse in Family Environments Core Questionnaire, Child Behavior Checklist, Self-Report Questionnaire. RESULTS: Outcome prevalence was 10.1%. Final logistic regression models identified two correlates: maternal harsh physical punishment in childhood (total sample, OR = 5.3, p = 0.047), and child/adolescent mental health problems (sub-sample aged 4-17 years, n = 67, OR = 9.1, p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Severe physical punishment of children/adolescents is frequent in the studied community. The victims have a higher probability of becoming future perpetrators. When intrafamilial violence occurs, child/adolescent mental health may be compromised.
The Predictors of Parental Use of Corporal Punishment
Family Relations, 2007
Despite a great deal of evidence that corporal punishment is harmful, corporal punishment is still very prevalent worldwide. We examine predictors of different types of corporal punishment among Ukrainian mothers in 12 communities across Ukraine. Findings suggest that maternal spirituality, maternal coping styles, family communication, and some demographic characteristics are predictive of mothers' use of corporal punishment.
Parsing the Effects Violence Exposure in Early Childhood: Modeling Developmental Pathways
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2011
To prospectively examine pathways from early childhood violence exposure and trauma-related symptoms to school-age emotional health. Methods A longitudinal, birth cohort (N ¼ 437) was assessed with parent reports of lifetime violence exposure and trauma-related symptoms at 3 years of age and later, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and social competence at school age. Results Early family and neighborhood violence correlated significantly with early trauma-related symptoms and also significantly predicted school-age internalizing and externalizing symptoms and poorer competence, independent of sociodemographic risk and past-year violence exposure. Longitudinal pathways were significantly mediated by arousal and avoidance symptoms at 3 years of age, which increased risk for clinically significant emotional problems and lower competence at school age (adjusted odds ratios ¼ 3.1-6.1, p < 0.01). Conclusions Trauma-related symptoms may mediate developmental pathways from early violence exposure to later emotional health. Interventions that prevent or reduce early trauma-related symptoms may ameliorate the long-term deleterious impact of violence exposure.
Journal of Marriage and Family, 2012
The authors examined the relations among intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal depressive symptoms, and maternal harsh intrusive parenting. Using a cross-lagged, autoregressive path model, they sought to clarify the directionality of the relations among these 3 variables over the first 2 years of the child's life. The results indicated that, in this diverse sample of families living in predominantly low-income rural communities (N = 705), higher levels of early IPV were associated with increases in maternal depressive symptoms, which in turn were associated with increases in maternal harsh intrusive parenting behaviors. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the parenting of women exposed to domestic violence may want to simultaneously target IPV and depressive symptomatology. Keywords depression; intimate partner violence; parenting Parenting practices have long been acknowledged as a potent predictor of child functioning. Higher levels of harsh, controlling parenting behaviors and lower levels of sensitive, supportive parenting have consistently been associated with less ideal outcomes for children of all ages (Cox & Harter, 2003). Parenting during early childhood has been shown to be particularly important for children's functioning, with significant implications for children's later development (Maccoby, 2000; Verhoeven, Junger, Van Aken, Deković, & Van Aken, 2007), yet early childhood is a particularly challenging time for parents to interact with their children sensitively. The transition to parenthood can be a stressful time for parents because it places new demands on the couple and requires reorganization of the family system in order to accommodate the new child (Cox, Paley, Burchinal, & Payne, 1999; Maccoby). As the child approaches toddlerhood, increases in child negative affectivity also contribute to parenting stress in that it increases and broadens the types of demands placed on parents at this time (Keenan & Wakschlag, 2000; Verhoeven et al.). Taken together, these stressors make the first 2 years of the child's life a particularly challenging time for parents to not use negative and controlling tactics with their children, yet it is an especially important time for them to not do so. Although parenting behaviors tend to remain stable over time (Dallaire & Weinraub, 2005), they are not a fixed quality but instead have been shown to be affected by a number of contextual factors, including family dynamics (Cummings & Davies, 2010) and the mother's well-being (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Golding, 1999; Teti, Gelfand, & Pompa, 1990). Given the integral role that parenting plays in child development, it is important to examine factors that may place parenting at risk.
Global Health Action, 2014
Background: Previous studies have shown that women's education is protective against corporal punishment (CP) of children. However, the effect that women's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) has on the association between women's education and children's CP has not been studied. Objective: To understand how the interaction between women's exposure to IPV and their education level influences the occurrence of children's CP at the household level. Methods: We selected 10,156 women who had at least one child less than 16 years old from cross-sectional data from the 2006Á2007 Nicaraguan Demographic and Health Survey. Children's CP was defined as the punishment of children by slapping them, hitting them with a fist, or hitting them with a rope, belt, stick, or other object. IPV was measured by using a conflict tactic scale. The WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire 20 (SRQ-20) was used to assess the women's mental health. We computed adjusted risk ratios (ARR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using Poisson regression with a robust variance estimator. Results: Women's exposure to IPV was associated with a 10Á17% increase in the risk of children's CP. IPV and children's CP were associated with impaired women's mental health. Women's lifetime exposure to emotional IPV and controlling behavior by a partner significantly decreased the protective effect from women's high education level on children's CP. When women were exposed to emotional IPV, the protective effect from having a college education decreased from ARR00.61 (95% CI 0.47Á0.80) to ARR 00.98 (95% CI 0.80Á 1.19). A similar pattern was found among women exposed to controlling behavior by a partner, the protective effect decreased from ARR 00.71 (95% CI 0.53Á0.90) to ARR 00.86 (95% CI 0.70Á1.06). Conclusion: This study shows how significant gains in one positive social determinant of children's well-being can be undermined when it interacts with men's violence toward women. Policies that aim to end children's CP must include actions to end women's exposure to IPV.
Does corporal punishment erode the quality of the mother–child interaction in early childhood?
Social Development, 2019
Corporal punishment is believed to exert its influence partially on children's externalizing behavior by undermining the quality of parent-child relationships, but empirical evidence for this belief is lacking. Thus, the goal of this study was to explore longitudinally whether the use of corporal punishment by mothers was associated with declining quality in parent-child interactions and whether these declines mediated the links between corporal punishment and later externalizing behavior. Based on data from the NIHCD SECCYD, the findings from this study indicated that the links between the quality of parent-child interaction and corporal punishment were bi-directional: high quality parent-child interaction was associated with less use of subsequent corporal punishment by mothers, and maternal use of corporal punishment at 36months was associated with declines in the quality of parent-child interaction at 54-months. There were not significant indirect effects of corporal punishment at 36-months on grade 3 aggression through 54-month parent-child interaction quality, however, which suggests other mechanisms might account for the links between early corporal punishment and later externalizing problems.